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Hotel Gomti in Lucknow

One of the hazards of interviewing fresh candidates from highly reputed governemnt/controlled colleges is to stay in government run hotels. Typically there is an unwritten rule for these colleges and that is, to utilize state run establishments whether that means using Indian for flying or IndiaPost for courier or Hotels.

Me and my colleagues were there in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh, on a talent acquisition spree from my organization in early May,2007. We had zeroed in on one of the better technical institutes of India (definitely one of the top ones in Uttar Pradesh) and that happened to be IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology). We were put up at Hotel Gomti which as expected is a state run hotel.

Gomti Hotel is very well located, close to Sahara Ganj and is a realtively old strucuture. It was inaugurated in 1981 by erstwhile Prime Minister of India, V. P. Singh. It has I guess quite a few rooms, close to 50.

We stayed in the best rooms and the usual rack rates are around Rs 1500 for a single and you get the complimentary breakfast. The rooms are spacious but lack all modern fitments. So no coffee makers, no new age furniture, poor ventilation and a very badly stocked rest room. Fortunately they have redone the floor and other fitments in rest rooms so thats some solace. A/C works pretty well and we were in mid summers there and it was quite comfortable.

There is a small lobby which can sit 10 odd people, a coffee shop, a bar and a restaurant. We just checked out the restaurant and it was quite an old-world dark and dingy place. Somehow most of the state run hotels have this dingy darkness probably because of ill-designed interiors or just plain apathy. Interestingly unlike most of the other hotel, they dont have a breakfast buffet, rather you can choose from certain combos and it will be delivered in your room.

Room Service is quite dismal and it took them as much as 1 hour to get you a cup of tea and much more to get breakfast. To top it all, the flask was broken and the waiter was in bathroom sleepers. From my experience in staying at all kinds of hotels, this must be one of the few times when I noticed the waiter in worn-out bathroom sleepers. I dont know how they get to keep their jobs.

All in all, a poor and dismal show. Saving grace was that we were able to find some very bright talent and we dont care too much of a bad hotel. Avoid.

With assembly elections declared in UP, schools & offices being closed for 2 days, it was 4 day long weekend. My sister insisted on going out and after exploring various options, we finally decided for “Srinagar” and competitive air ticket prices contributed towards this decision. For those travelling with infant (as in my case), GoAir might be the best bet as GoAir is not charging Fuel Surcharge, Passenger Handling Fee and Congestion Surcharge for infants, that would make infant ticket cheaper by 1K.

Day 1: After landing Srinagar airport around noon time on 12th April, we had lunch at Krishna Vaishno Dhaba and headed for local sightseeing. There are many pure-veg restaurants and dhabas around Dal Gate along with Nathu’s (especially for Delhiites). Local sightseeing started with Shankaraya Charya Temple which is on the height of more than 200 stairs. Avoid going to this place just after having heavy lunch. We then turned to Gardens of Srinagar – Botanical garden, Tulip garden, Shalimar and Nishat garden (Mughal garden). All gardens have beautiful grass lawns and fountains but the best garden is Tulip garden.

Srinagar’s Tulip Garden is Asia’s largest Tulip garden, which was opened just few days back for the season. It had more than 3 lakh flowers in full bloom imported from Holland. Worth spending few hours.

After covering sightseeing, in the evening, we went to Dal Lake for looking at House Boats as we were planning to stay one night in House Boat. A single visit to House Boat was sufficient to clear all our doubts regarding safely of child, mosquitoes, stinking issues blah blah. We changed our minds and negotiated with the owner of “PANZEY” (House Boat) and settled there for all 3 three nights. House Boats opposite to Nathu’s Sweets are pretty decent and close to market.

Day2: We had early breakfast and left for Gulmarg in the private taxi. We bargained with taxi driver directly without approaching taxi stand and got a good deal as this was a non-peak season. We reached Gulmarg in around 2 hrs time. From there, we took Gandola (rope way) to the snow point Phase -1. Phase 2 is the hilltop for which authority charges 500 bucks per person. For us, phase -1 was good enough, full of snow and winter activities such as skiing and sledging. We spent few hours there and then came back to Gulmarg base, had lunch and returned to Srinagar.

In the evening, we enjoyed Shikara ride around the Dal Lake. Shaikara ride covers several sight-seeings of Dal lake viz Nehru park, “Chori ki zameen” (floating land in Dal lake), shopping centers and Shikara Restaurant. Yes, Shikara Restaurant – A restaurant on Shikara which caters snacks, when you are enjoying Shikara ride or staying in House Boat. Shikara ride and stay in House Boat is the best of Kashmir.

Day3: Phalagam, starting point of Amarnath Yatra, is around 2.5 hrs away from Srinagar. It is worth hiring a pony and enjoy pony ride along with sightseeing. We let our driver negotiate on the price as he knew local language and finally he got us deal on much lower price than the government listed rates. Pony took us through the kaccha tracks on the mountain and after 15-20 minutes of ride, we reached a large beautiful ground surrounded by Himalayan range. There was also a small river flowing on one side of the ground with chilled water. We spent few hours there, relaxed and also tried Kashmiri Kahwa (only Aarushi enjoyed the taste of Kahwa J). On the way back to Pahalgam, there were several other sightseeing but not of a kind where we could get down of pony and spent some time. We had our lunch at Nathu’s Rasoi in Phalagam and headed back to Srinagar.

In the evening, we visited the (in)famous “Lal Chowk” of Srinagar (place where most of the bomb blasts happen). Lal Chowk is not a tourist area and is dominated by locals so we purchased some good Kashmiri stuff from there on reasonable price. Dry fruits, Kesar, Shawls and ladies suites. Finally, after dinner we packed our luggage and booked taxi for leaving airport in the morning.

There are multiple security checks on Srinagar airport so it is good to keep buffer of few hours while reaching airport else you may miss your flight.

Day4: Welcome back to Delhi with soaring 42 degree temperature.